Illustrated biography; or, Memoirs of the great and the good of all nations and all times; comprising sketches of eminent statesmen, philosophers, heroes, artists, reformers, philanthropists, mechanics, navigators, authors, poets, divines, soldiers, savans, etc . ane-lagh and the theatres ; he mingled with expensive and dissipated society. Hehad hitherto seen too little of the world ; he now saw too much: and thus, wemay conclude, passed on the first few months of his London life, during whichfame receded as penury drew nigh, and debts accumulated faster than of the memoirs of the B
Illustrated biography; or, Memoirs of the great and the good of all nations and all times; comprising sketches of eminent statesmen, philosophers, heroes, artists, reformers, philanthropists, mechanics, navigators, authors, poets, divines, soldiers, savans, etc . ane-lagh and the theatres ; he mingled with expensive and dissipated society. Hehad hitherto seen too little of the world ; he now saw too much: and thus, wemay conclude, passed on the first few months of his London life, during whichfame receded as penury drew nigh, and debts accumulated faster than of the memoirs of the Biographia Britannica, it appears, were tohave been written by him, and were, in fact shown to Mr. Ragsdale in addition to these evidences of industry, he wrote about the same period hisimperishable Odes, the labor expended on which we can but imperfectly esti-mate in the exquisite results bequeathed to us, even although we know thathis MS, bears the marks of repeated corrections, that he was perpetuallychanging his epithets, and that he was constantly burning what he had odes were published, and their reception was such,^hat the miserableauthor purchased the unsold copies and burnt them; and not only them, but on 284 WILLIAM William Collins.—From the Bas-Relief, by Flaxman, in Chichester Cathedral. WILLIAM COLLINS. 285 the same funeral pile were offered up and destroyed all that had made life en-durable to the man, and a still more awful sacrifice, all that made up the powerand genius of the poet. From this event we conceive must be dated the com-mencement of the malady which left its victim, through the remainder of life,the most fearful spectacle the world can present—the wreck of genius. Thehighest condition of humanity, reduced to the lowest, and most horrible—thepoet transformed to the madman. On the death of Thomson, in 1748, he wrotethe ode to his memory, and soon after went abroad to his uncle, then in Flan-ders, who soon after died
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Keywords: ., bookcentury1800, bookdecade1850, booksubjectbiography, bookyear18
